Taiwan

Taipei - Keelung

After a crappy rainy, windy day at sea we were greeted by a crappy rainy day in Taiwan.
Through Tamara via a brother in Boston Chinese via Terry an MTS grad from Pittsburgh we met up with a lovely lad named Monru in a Tapei congregation. He got up at 5 am to catch a cab to catch a 6 15 bus to meet the ship at 7. We finally got cleared to get off ship by 730 and we repeated the process all the way back to Taipei, just in time for their 930 meeting( mandarin).
The talk was outstanding and the watchtower expertly conducted. I know this cause they both ended on time.

This also happened to be Irinka (from back home) congregation. She about fell over when she saw us sitting in her hall.

Cong is a real stew of different nationalities. The wt conductor, wolgang, was a German graduate of the 50th class of Gilead, who had recently come off the CO road.
The public speaker was a japanese brother who grew up in LA. Terry, the mts grad, was from maryland but worked in foreign language territories in Germany for 17 years.
So here I am in the middle of Asia speaking German.

There is also a contingent of Spanish speaking friends, some from Spain, others from Panama who are learning Mandarin.

The actual locals are largely younger who all seem to be studying English at the local universities. This is the hook for all the Americans who can work 10 to 15 hrs per week as tutors and make a good enough living, including medical insurance, to pioneer.


Everyone we spoke with, including our tour guide is the first member of their family to come into the truth, and they did so in their 20's. This is what the US was probably like in the 50 and 60's.

Terry told me that they have 100 publishers of which 50 are regular pioneers and 25 got baptized last year.

Had a great lunch with a group and shopped in the Taipei version of a bustling street market.

We convinced poor Monru that he didn't have to go all the way back with us to Keelung to get us back to the ship. It was a small conflict of his guilt in not fulfilling his' assignment' vs his tiredness and the prospect of two more bus rides. Practicality won out and he pointed us to express bus 1813 which leaves every 15 minutes to Keelung.
Piece of cake. The bus stopped smack dab in front of our ship in the Harbor.
We even had time to wander through the Keelung version of a street market.

Hopfully internet will we swift enough for some more pictures
Starbucks assessment: Taiwan had more starbucks than Seattle.